oats and pretty
low bodices, and sat in turns before the dining-room fire, while Hope--
happy possessor of natural curls!--heated irons and waved and crimped
with such artistic skill that, as Madge gleefully declared, the three
heads were `transformations' indeed--far more like toupees than natural
growth.

Philippa wore her mother's lace, which gave a regal air to the old black
silk dress; Hope was lovely, as usual, in her professional white;
Madge's "subdued elegance" proved exceedingly becoming; but Theo was
distinctly the most imposing figure of the four. She possessed the
Frenchwoman's talent for putting on her clothes and adding those little
touches which go so far towards making an effective whole, and her
sisters exclaimed with surprised admiration as she came rustling into
the drawing-room, a chaplet of violets crowning the graceful head, and a
couple of black feathers fastened jauntily at the side of the low
corsage by a paste buckle, which looked exactly like a family heirloom,
and not in the least as if it had been unpicked from the side of a felt
hat but ten minutes before. Thrown over her shoulders, too, was quite a
vision in the way of evening-cloaks, manufactured out of a summer cape,
a lace collar, and the beloved feather boa tacked on as an edging. The
cape was unlined, and far too thin a covering for a winter evening; but,
girl-like, Theo declared that she was "broiled," and insisted that
suffocation would be the result of wearing the nice, warm, ugly shawl
which Philippa pressed upon her.

The Hermit came upstairs in his dress-clothes, bearing in his hands four
immaculate white camellias, which had seemed to his old-fashioned
notions appropriate offerings to present to his girl guests. It was
sweet of him to have thought of flowers at all, but--camellias! Theo
thanked her stars for the violets which she was already wearing, and
dashed from the room to warn Madge, who promptly stole the
chrysanthemums from the dinner-table and pinned them in a conspicuous
position. Hope, of course, was too gentle to refuse what had been meant
so kindly; while as for Philippa, to judge by her ejaculations of
delight, it would appear that nothing under the sun could have given her
so much pleasure.

They drove away from the door in a couple of four-wheelers, two happy,
smiling girls on either back seat, faced by a hungry, dress-coated man.
The dinner was everything that fancy had painted it: all sorts of
delig